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Indentifying Plant DeficienciesHydroponic gardening's popularity has grown
in leaps and bounds in recent years, especially in North America.

The
correct diagnosis of nutritional deficiencies is important in
maintaining optimum plant growth. The recognition of
these symptoms allows growers to fine tune their nutritional
regime as well as minimize stress conditions. However, the
symptoms expressed are often dependent on the species of plant
growth, stage of growth or other controlling factors. Therefore,
growers should become familiar with nutritional deficiencies on a
crop-by-crop basis.

What To Do About Them

Record keeping and
photographs are excellent tools for assisting in the diagnosis of
nutrient deficiencies. Photographs allow growers to compare
symptoms to previous situations in a step-by-step approach to
problem solving. Accurate records help in establishing trends as
well as responses to corrective treatments.

You will find pictures and brief descriptions of some of the most
common deficiencies in the plant world. Should you not find the
picture that resembles one of these deficiencies, check our plant
disease page as it could be a disease.

Nitrogen (N)Restricted
growth of tops and roots especially lateral shoots.
Plants become spindly with general chlorosis of entire
plant to a light green and then a yellowing of older
leaves which proceeds toward younger leaves. Older
leaves defoliate early.

Phosphorous (P)Restricted
and spindly growth similar to that of nitrogen
deficiency. Leaf color is usually a dull dark green to
a bluish green with purpling of petioles and the
veins on underside of younger leaves. Younger leaves
may be yellowish green with purple veins with "N"
deficiency and darker green with "P" deficiency.
Otherwise, "N" and "P" deficiencies are very much
alike.

Potassium (K)Older
leaves show interveinal chlorosis and marginal necrotic
spots, or scorching, which progresses inward and also
upward toward younger leaves as deficiency becomes more
severe.

Calcium (Ca)From
slight chlorosis to brown to black scorching of new leaf
tips and die- back of growing points. The scorched and
die-back portion of tissue is very slow to dry so that
it does not crumble easily. Boron deficiency also
causes scorching of new leaf tips and die-back of
growing points, but calcium deficiency does not promote
the growth of lateral shoots and short internodes as
does boron deficiency.

Magnesium (Mg) Interveinal
chlorotic mottling or marbling of the older leaves
which proceeds toward the younger leaves as the
deficiency becomes more severe. The chlorotic
Interveinal yellow patches usually occur toward the
center of leaf with the margins being the last to turn
yellow. In some crops, the interveinal yellow patches
are followed by necrotic spots or patches and marginal
scorching of the leaves.

Boron (B) Slight
chlorosis to brown to black scorching of new leaf tips
and die- back of the growing points similar to calcium
deficiency. Also, the brown and black die- back tissue
is very slow to dry so that it can be crumbled easily.
Both the pith and epidermis of stems may be affected as
exhibited by hollow stems to roughened and cracked
stems.

Sulfur (S) Resembles
nitrogen deficiency in that older leaves become
yellowish green and the stems thin, hard and woody.
Some plants show colorful orange and red tints rather
than yellowing. The stems, although hard and woody,
increase in length but not in diameter.

Iron (Fe) Starts
with interveinal chlorotic mottling of immature leaves,
and in severe cases, the new leaves become completely
lacking in chlorophyll, but with little or no necrotic
spots. The chlorotic mottling on immature leaves may
start first near the bases of the leaflets so that in
effect the middle of the leaf appears to have a yellow
streak.

Manganese (Mn)Starts
with interveinal chlorotic mottling of immature leaves,
and in many plants it is indistinguishable from that of
iron. On fruiting plants, the blossom buds often do
not fully develop and turn yellow or abort. As the
deficiency becomes more severe, the new growth becomes
completely yellow, but in contrast to iron, necrotic
spots usually appear in the interveinal tissue.

Zinc (Zn)In
some plants, the interveinal chlorotic mottling first
appears on the older leaves, and in others it appears
on the immature leaves. It eventually affects the
growing points of all plants. The interveinal
chlorotic mottling may be the same as that for iron and
manganese, except for the development of exceptionally
small leaves. When zinc deficiency onset is sudden,
such as zinc left out of the nutrient solution, the
chlorosis can appear identical to that of iron and
manganese without the little leaf.

Copper (Cu)Leaves
at top of the plant wilt easily followed by chlorotic
and necrotic areas in the leaves. Leaves on the top
half of the plant may show unusual puckering with veinal
chlorosis. Absence of a knot on the leaf where petiole
joins the main stem of plant, beginning about 10 or
more leaves below growing point.

Molybdenum (Mo) These
deficiency symptoms in legumes are mainly exhibited as
nitrogen-deficiency symptoms because of the primary role
of molybdenum in nitrogen fixation. Unlike the other
micronutrients, molybdenum-deficiency symptoms are not
confined mainly to the youngest leaves because
molybdenum is mobile in plants. The characteristic
molybdenum deficiency symptom in some vegetable crops is
irregular leaf blade formation, known as whiptail, but
interveinal mottling and marginal chlorosis of older
leaves also have been observed.